According to an IHT article, Mao Lijun, head and General Manager of the Xuzhou Anying Biologic Technology Development Company, has been detained by the Chinese authorities for his possible link with the contaminated wheat gluten. This marks the first arrest related to this case in all involved countries.

More after the jump.

(Thanks Mike and Patty L.)

SHANGHAI, May 3 â€” The general manager of one of the companies accused of selling contaminated wheat gluten to pet food suppliers in the United States has been detained by the Chinese authorities, according to police officials here and a person who was briefed on the investigation.

Mao Lijun, head of the Xuzhou Anying Biologic Technology Development Company, is being held in coastal Jiangsu Province, about 320 miles northwest of Shanghai, though a police spokesman in Pei County declined to say on what charges.

In a telephone interview a few weeks ago, Mr. Mao denied any knowledge of how melamine, an industrial chemical, had adulterated pet food supplies sold under his company label earlier this year. He also insisted that his company had never exported any wheat gluten and that his products were only sold in the domestic market.

But regulators in the United States identified Xuzhou Anying and another Chinese company in nearby Shandong Province as the only sources of the contaminated ingredients that led to one of the biggest pet food recalls in American history.

The arrest of Mr. Mao may be an indication that the Chinese government is stepping up its own investigation into the scandal and also trying to show its willingness to cooperate with Food and Drug Administration investigators who arrived in China on Monday.

17 Responses to “Chinese Authorities Detain Manager”

Nice as it was for the Chinese authorities, who are “all out on holiday” this week and JUST in time for the FDA inspectors to arrive (faboo timing don’t ya think?) to round up a set of handcuffs and do a dog and pony show for the FDA inspectors, but I have my doubts.

Is this poor schlub the ONLY person , the mastermind behind the poisoning of , say, America for the last 15 years and the killer of all the pets?
Call me a cynic but I aint buying it.

This is just more of the cover up and how convenient too! Here, we arrested someone, go away.

There are quite a few who need to be doing a perp walk, I have a list, it gets bigger everyday. And nobody needs to get visas or a passport to find them either.

It is completely beyond the realm of belief that Mr. & Mrs. Miller of Chem Nutra haven’t already been detained by our own government officials. For someone as familiar with the “system,” in China as gal Sally, it is inconceivable that she and her hubby didn’t know what to look for in terms of manifests, testing, certifications, or the fact that this “stuff” was listed as non-food items.

FUFENG, CHINA â€” For two years, Sun Baoli has been trying to clean up the dirty honey business here. He’s been met with nasty stings from bees, but those are nothing compared with the curses and punches from their keepers.

The 52-year-old entrepreneur paid the local government about $5,000 to rent part of a nature preserve teeming with nectar-filled acacia trees. He’s been recruiting beekeepers to harvest on the grounds, and all he asks is that they follow a few simple health rules. First, no using antibiotics in their colonies; the drugs can make people sick. Second, no storing honey in metal containers; those can taint the sweet goo with toxic iron and lead.

[…]

Honey and thousands of other Chinese food products are showing up more and more on dining tables around the world. Last year, China said it exported $3.8 billion worth of food to the U.S., including vast quantities of apple juice, garlic, sausage casings, canned mushrooms and honey. [/QUOTE]

$3.8 BILLION. Apple juice. Garlic. Sausage casings. Mushrooms. Honey. God only knows how much of this is widespread in all the supermarket and Wal-Mart foods we buy.

The world outside of the internet STILL DOES NOT KNOW THE SIGNS OF POISONING IN THE PETS!

That is the task we must focus on.
If you call a pet food company (and I don’t because I will not even lift a phone to hear yet MORE lies) but if you DO call, give em hell for not being on TV with the signs and symptoms to look for. If they care about pets( which they don’t) then get a shiny face on the freaking TV saying what needs to be said or shut the fark up!

If you contact media, ditto.

If you write to your local paper, if you email CNN, if you do ANYTHING, if you send email to your friends, add what they need to know and do not quit until this information is as big a story as who screwed Anna Nichole Smith.
We all got screwed, we are all getting screwed, I hope Ms. Smith enjoyed her screwing more than I am enjoying mine.

To repeat, if your vet does not have a warning sign up in the waiting room then take your vet by the hand to the nearest computer and SCARE them into putting up that sign.
If you go to the grocery store to purchase melachicken, put up a flyer on the bulletin board.
If you go to other online pet forums, remind people to do the same.

Get the symptoms off the internet and out THERE for the rest of the world to see!

I WANT THIS JERK HOOKED UP TO A FBI LIE DETECTER TEST. NO 1 QUESTION -WHY DID YOU SET OUT TO KILL OUR PETS. QUESTION NO 2- HOW THE HELL CAN YOU SLEEP AT NIGHT WITH THE DEATH’S OF ALL THESE INOCENT BELOVED PET ‘S BEHINE YOU PUTTING THAT CRAP IN MY PETS FOOD PLUS THE ALMOST 5,000 THAT HAVE DIED AND SO MANY MORE SICK. HOW CAN YOU SLEEP AT NIGHT????

Chinese is guaranteed to yank a few expendables and announce everything is fixed because that is how China fixes everything, with brute force and scape-goats.

People are a dime a dozen in China, so there is a big supply of scape goats.

What we need to do is extradite the Menu execs and other liars to China and ask China to treat them like their own citizens.

Explain to the Chinese that these men have imperiled the flow of Chinese food exports to America. Explain that if it weren’t for these men stalling on recalls Americans would have accepted any lame excuses for their pet deaths and kept on eating Chinese.

We have to be sure to ask the Chinese authorities not to recycle the remains of the American execs or they might end up being shipped back to America in cans of pet food.

The entire article is worth reading. I stopped shopping at Walmart years ago because they strongarm companies to meet their price point on products or the companies will not be “invited” to sell at Walmart. To meet the price point, companies have to use inferior materials and cut corners where they can so they can meet their profit —

Companies have to decide whether to maintain the high quality of their brand name by continuing to use higher end materials vs. getting high volume sales using low quality materials. Many companies, unfortunately, wanting the high traffic and high volume sales Walmart gets, give in.

The same goes for food - cheaper to process in China, cheaper ingredients. Look what CHEAP has led to.

………………………..PBS article

Of Wal-Mart’s 6,000 global suppliers, experts estimate that as many as 80 percent are based in China.

“Wal-Mart has a very close relationship with China,” says Duke University Professor Gary Gereffi. “China is the largest exporter to the U.S. economy in virtually all consumer goods categories. Wal-Mart is the leading retailer in the U.S. economy in virtually all consumer goods categories. Wal-Mart and China are a joint venture.”

When trade agreements were signed between the U.S. and China in the 1990s, bringing China into the World Trade Organization, American political and business leaders embraced the idea. China’s 1.2 billion people were viewed as an enormous untapped market for American-made goods. The reality, experts say, is the opposite. China’s exports to the U.S. have skyrocketed.

At a salary of only 50 cents an hour or $100 a month, Chinese labor is an unbeatable bargain for international business. And the Chinese government is doing everything it can to be sure the country’s infrastructure supports the export business. Ten years ago Shenzhen’s main port did not exist. Today it’s on the verge of becoming the third busiest port in the world.

I just can’t believe the FDA is still playing dumb in this situation! How can they recall pet foods contaminated with these chemicals and not the human grade food?
The FDA should be held responsible for not testing the imported food goods for the LAST 15 YEARS! I just can’t believe how easy they are making it for the terrorists to poison us! The FDA should also make it MANDATORY, with no exceptions, to test all imported foodstuffs and ingredients for foodstuffs, it’s sad that they don’t do this now but maybe it will change, wasn’t this their job to begin with?
I hope the FDA officials and workers were plagued with the same sick and dying animals that the citizens were, not because I want pets to die but because that is the only way they will truly understand the impact this is having on us, the pet owners who thought we were feeding our pets healthy and safe food but in reality poisoned them.
Well now it is in our food and soon we will hear about people suffering from the same illnesses as the pets!
I pray that someone gets smart before it is to late!

A retired Walmart buyer told me that except for items manufactured by Walmart most of the items you see at the store Walmart doesn’t pay the supplier unless that item sells.

I have to find the pickle article. Walmarts arrangements with its customers have destroyed some of the biggest manufacturers in the US.

Walmart sells more than 50% of all pickles in the US. If a pickle maker doesnt get carried by Walmart he doesn’t get much business. This famous maker was told Walmart only wanted gallon jars of pickle, a huge order, at rock bottom cost.

The pickle maker had to scrounge to get enough cucumbers to fill the order. They barely made any money on the deal. Walmart basically gave the pickles away at just above cost. Once a customer had a gallon of pickles he didn’t need any for a long long time so the pickle maker couldnt sell to anyone else. The pickle maker went bankrupt. True story.

If I can find this article, the biggest maker of bedding in the US was put out of business the same way. The factories sold off and the looms were shipped to China (at bargain prices I bet)

Have you seen the horrible bedding coming out of China? The biggest scam is high thread count at hign prices. It is supposed to be luxury. However, the higher the thread count, the thinner the sheet and the less cotton used. The sheet wrinkles more and absorbs less moisture too.

When is the last time you saw a January white sale of bedding? Those sales came from our factories overstock. As the factories are shipped to China, the white sales are taking place - in China while we pay $49 a set for cheap Chinese sheets

EH- I was spreading the word and placing printouts of the recall items in Walmart. Well they escorted me out! I did get more than a few words out to several people to check the list. I did see the customers doing it :-)
Thankfully I hardly go in the store anymore. Quality is not good and prices are just as high as anybody else now.